IPPF and FHI kick off commitments to the HANDtoHAND Campaign

20th September 2010

HANDtoHAND Campaign to Achieve 100 Million New Family Planning Users by 2015

The Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition has launched an ambitious campaign to achieve 100 million new modern contraceptive users by 2015, thereby meeting the family planning needs of 80 percent of women in low- and middle-income countries. The HANDtoHAND Campaign supports the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health. If achieved, it will mean 110,000 fewer pregnancy-related deaths, 96 million fewer unintended pregnancies, 54 million fewer abortions, and 1.4 million fewer infant deaths.

On 15 September, the Coalition received its first letters of commitment from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Family Health International (FHI), two of the Coalition’s member organizations. IPPF has pledged to increase new users of IPPF contraceptive services by at least 50 percent by 2015, and in so doing, doubling the number of unintended pregnancies averted. Moreover, IPPF also pledges to scale up its HIV related services, with the aim of providing integrated sexual and reproductive health and HIV services to at least 10 million people by 2015. FHI has committed to assuring the quality of contraceptive commodities by evaluating over 4 billion condoms and conducting quality assurance testing on over 50 million IUDs, female condoms, oral contraceptives, injectables, and implants annually.

For more information on the HANDtoHAND Campaign, please visit the Campaign’s web page.